Enough is Enough

The young people have had enough and decided to take over and run some protests themselves. We are not supposed to be here......for this, said one. Being shot at in math class when you've always been told that school is a safe environment will have that effect.

Students who are not yet old enough to vote spoke with great eloquence and poise today in Santa Rosa at a rally to stop gun violence, to encourage lawmakers enact gun control legislation, and to make it clear that anyone who takes money from the NRA or votes against bans on assault weapons will not be re-elected if they have anything to say about it.

Dana and Jim and Peter and I went to the rally  in downtown Santa Rosa today.  Others took place in Washington DC and many places in between all organized by the students of "Generation Z"  who are fed up with the abject failure of the government to take even the simplest steps toward gun control legislation. We were told by a young man from Peter's high school that automatic weapons were banned during the Clinton administration and assaults dropped by 43%. The Republicans let the ban expire during the Bush presidency and since then, assaults have risen by over 200%

Common platitudes about the difficulty of enacting legislation were debunked. "The only defense against a bad guy with a gun, is a good guy with a gun", said one young woman "just sounds to me like someone trying to sell two guns"

"Many legislators say that it's it's too late to try to make laws banning guns because there are already so many guns around," said another. I say let them find another way," 

As I listened to these young people finding their voices, who are seeing the importance of activism even before they are old enough to vote, I was impressed by their willingness to find common ground in working for change and to encourage all of us to join them. 


My legs were growing tired as the list of speakers went on. It had been a long time since most of the people who were standing around us were students. I longed to start moving as more and more kids came up to the mic to have their say. But then I realized that they had made this their platform and if our generation had learned anything from them it was that it is their turn to speak. We have let them down and the least we can do is listen to them with respect.